hike | camp | paint

November 6, 2016

A Different Coast to Coast – Part 4: The Bottom Bit

Ivybridge to Wembury: 15 miles, 1 day

The half day did us both good in topping up the tanks ready for the final stretch of the walk. I don’t think either of us had particularly high hopes for this final day’s walk, but personally I can pretty much steel myself for anything with the knowledge that a single day walk lies between me and the finish line. All we were really concerned with was how long it would take and what time we’d get our curry back in Okehampton.

We pootled around to the local library cum tourist info centre and the signpost that appears to mark the point where the Two Moors Way starts/ends and the Erme-Plym Trail ends/starts (I’ll talk more about the way they’ve named the trail in my final post). Then we followed the Erme out of Ivybridge, a new set of waymarks blazing our trail.

“Trailsmeet”, IvybridgeA new waymark to followAlongside the Erme

The Erme abandoned, our course was westerly across farmland, never quite entering the various villages, but always passing then within sight.

ErmingtonOld bridge near Flete

A break was taken on the edge of the Flete estate. It was unremarkable. The theme of the day.

We entered Yealmpton at lunchtime, just in time to find the café closing. A cold sausage roll and bag of crisps from the corner shop it was then. The next stretch was very irritating, a climb uphill (away from the coast) out of Yealmpton and a big curve back to the main road a few hundred yards west of where we’d left it. Presumably related to the lack of roadside pavement alongside a busy road, but nonetheless pointless.

Cofflete Creek

We walked through Brixton and turned properly south, coming across the head of Cofflete Creek and the first sense that we may be nearing the coast. Heads were down now just concentrating on getting the walk done, but we were startled out of this by crossing this field, which contained this tree…

And the “Tree of the Walk” award goes to…“Field of the Walk” (the panorama hasn’t stitched properly, but you get the idea)

It’s probably indicative of the excitement level on this day’s walk, that both of these were awarded the title of “highlight of today’s walk”. Indeed the field was the nicest one of the whole journey. And we’d seen a lot of fields.

Now it was just a matter of the last few bits of lane walking to take us to Wembury. As always, the last mile or so feels like 10 times as much, but soon we could see the sea and signs for the beach.

Paul at the end

And then we were there. A sign on the edge of the beach appearing to suggest an official end point, we posed for photos but also decided to wander down and dip our toes.

Mewstone, WemburyJourney’s End

We didn’t hang around long though and trudged back up hill to find the pub for the Official End of Walk Pint, but more importantly somewhere the taxi could pick us up to take us back to the car in Ivybridge. It seems from this photo that Paul was quite pleased to have finished.